


rhododendron for beware

by amateurexorcist



Series: flowers and their meanings [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Blood and Gore, Crime Fighting, Crimes & Criminals, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, F/F, Gun Violence, Introspection, Lies, Murder, Partners in Crime, Secret Identity, Secrets, Unreliable Narrator, Vigilantism, Violence, a lot of stuff has to happen first, and i want eddie to meet murder!karen eventually, and not in the frank castle "i know im awful" way, and shes our pov character so, bc i love that stupid movie, fisk who has not made a single appearance, i guess matt's the hero?, i promise actual plot will happen in the next one, i really need to get the ball rolling huh, idk i cant answer that question tbh, idk the whole 2 people who read these tell me if i should tag it, if karen is the protag and the villain who is the hero and who's the antag?, just 1K words of karen thinking about murder, karen is a very violent person w/ bad morals, karen is seriously not a good person here, matt has barely been in these fics tho, nor elektra for that matter, oh matt and foggy dont make like any appearance at all whoops, really I mean it, she seriously thinks shes in the right, should i tag this as dead dove?, that will be in like... several fics tho, this fic is all:, uhhh fisk maybe?, venom is mentioned in a news report, whos the antag?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:01:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27670411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amateurexorcist/pseuds/amateurexorcist
Summary: Karen has settled comfortably into her double life. Secretary for a couple of defense attorneys by day, vigilante by night.It's nice, she thinks.(Most would disagree.)
Relationships: Elektra Natchios/Karen Page
Series: flowers and their meanings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756204
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	rhododendron for beware

**Author's Note:**

> hi! i decided to change one smallish detail about murder!karen's backstory, namely which city she lived in for 10-11 years. i did more research on the topic of crimes committed in specific cities and have decided to move it to San Francisco, of all places. it matches up decently with what she got up to, as well as the fact that the venom tie in i wanted to do works a lot better with san francisco, so. yeah.
> 
> also, hi! im alive!

The media had taken to calling them "The White Masks".

Karen thought it was underwhelming, to be honest.

They were more than the masks. Hell, the masks hardly even mattered. When they started, they hadn't worn them, after all. They only started so they wouldn't have to fear getting their identities leaked. The masks didn't matter and they never would, not as much as their mission.

But it wasn't like she could do anything about it, so she kept her brooding to herself. 'Worked hard at the office during the day and cut herself loose with Elektra at night. And, well, she liked Matt and Foggy fine, but she started to find herself looking forwards to sundown. When she could shed her woman-shaped mask and put on one that was smooth and featureless, like death herself.

She and Elektra were agents of death, punishing the sinners yet to be taken. It was a job someone had to do, and they could do it.

And she was more than happy to. She had what it took, and she could do it.

She was doing fine.

She was doing _great._

Karen had a lot of old habits from her time in San Francisco. Most of them had faded out since moving to New York before returning with a vengeance after Wesley.

She kept several locks on her door, for one. There was the keyhole on her doorknob that all the apartments in her building had, but she'd had a deadbolt and a chain lock installed upon moving in. These days, she latched all three up tight whenever she was home.

Another thing was that she refused to get drunk.

She'd drink, sure, but never more than one serving. She couldn't let herself be wasted or hungover when she was working at either of her jobs. Not to mention, one of them didn't even give her a break on weekends. She always had to be at her best, after all, what kind of halfwit of a vigilante got wasted before heading out to patrol?

The third, and perhaps the most _important_ in that moment, was the fact that she found herself to be holding people at an arm's length. Or, really just holding Matt and Foggy at arm's length. It wasn't like she had anyone else around besides them and Elektra. And Elektra was the exception to this rule, as she was with most things.

She could feel their eyes, or, er- Foggy's eyes and Matt's super ears?- on her back whenever they thought she wasn't paying attention. The problem was that she tried her best to never _not be_ paying attention, because she'd learned a long time ago that letting her guard down was a great way to earn yourself a bellyful of lead.

Karen almost wished that she didn't notice them worrying. Almost wished that she could live in blissful ignorance about them knowing that something was wrong. Almost. It was still safer, after all. It reminded her that she had to be careful.

They already knew that something had changed. That something was up with her life. She had to keep them in the dark. To keep them safe.

Well, mostly to keep Foggy safe. Matt was already getting himself into dangerous shit on his own. Karen's problems were just... Of the more lethal variety.

Yeah, that was a nice, clean way to put it. Easy way to say that she knew how to clean a murder site and dump a corpse so it wouldn't be found just about as well as she knew how to tie her shoelaces. Good way to say that she could assemble and disassemble a gun quicker than anyone she'd known, she used to race her old coworkers, after all.

_Jesus H. Christ, she had a weird life._

But she had to stay careful. Had to painstakingly scrub herself clean when she limped back into her apartment every night. She was putting more time, effort, and money into getting herself clean than she ever had before, if only to try and keep Matt from noticing any lingering traces of blood and gunpowder. It could have been for nothing. She didn't know exactly what he was capable of, if she was overdoing it or if, even with all the work she put into it, he still was able to tell.

It was stressful, to say the least. Since when had having what was practically a spa day every day become stressful?

If this was something normal, like a new job or hobby, she'd take a break. But this wasn't normal. It was the most important thing she'd ever done, and she couldn't stop. Not now or ever.

Not until she died.

The news sure liked reporting on things.

Well, that _was_ their job, but still. They liked the blood and the gore and the grit. And while Karen tolerated it to do her job, it seemed that journalists and reporters liked to wade right through it.

She sat there, absently sipping cheap alcohol on Matt's couch. Whatever conversation they'd been having had died when the weather broadcast they'd had on as background noise switched to breaking news.

_"In the city of San Francisco, twenty three men with connections to organized crime were found dead by law enforcement last night after a man walking his dog in the area reported shots fired. All the corpses were found severely mutilated, more than half of them were decapitated, and several were missing various internal organs. Both the missing heads and the organs are yet to be recovered. There are currently no suspects in the case. Could someone on the West Coast be attempting to mimic the vigilantes of New York City? We are awaiting more det-"_

"That's just disgusting." Foggy cut the reporter off and changed the channel. Karen didn't say anything, but she knew that she'd have to google it when she got back to her apartment. So much for a night off.

Hello, potential friend!

Foggy and Matt had a new client.

Karen had a bad feeling about him.

He made her skin crawl. She tried her best never to let him out of her sight, keeping him in the corner of her eyes, and she let him know that she was watching him. He didn't say it of course, but the man sure seemed smart enough to notice her attention.

He was being tried for identity theft, of all things. He'd taken out loans under his eight year old daughter's name, and when his wife found out she immediately divorced him and sued on their kid's behalf.

A good mom, really.

It was an open and shut case. Matt and Foggy convinced him to take a plea deal- he had to pay for his wife's legal costs, pay back what he took from his daughter, and he lost all custody of her. It was over remarkably quickly. Easy peasy.

That didn't ease Karen's nerves.

He unsettled her deeply, and she didn't think that would stop any time soon.

Every time he looked at her it made her want to peel off her own skin.

If Karen had nothing, it was a nose for trouble.

She couldn't get the client out of her head, even when he'd left the office for the last time after his case was settled. Even a week after all was said and done, her mind kept wandering back to it.

It was a good thing that she had the skills to find things out.

Really, ruining your kid's credit score so you could get a start on the narcotics business was a whole new level of _why the fuck would you want to do that, sir._

It was a pretty big risk to go after someone she knew in real life, but if she took pains to make sure it was obvious that the Masks were responsible, then they probably wouldn't even bother questioning his former legal team, especially since he was found guilty. For all they would know, she could have just read about it online and decided to strike.

She'd have to kill him somewhere with cameras.

Karen changed into the mask as soon as night fell, and she quickly hurried through the streets towards where she knew he worked a graveyard shift at a shipping company. Elektra wasn't there to join her that night, she had somewhere else to be, something else to do, some other mess to clean up.

That was fine.

Karen could handle herself.

The morning after she killed their former client, Matt called in sick for work. He claimed that he had a headache.

Karen knew better. Matt was, to put it simply, a self-sacrificing dumbass. A headache would never be enough to keep him away from work. That meant something had to have happened last night.

She was left with two options.

a) Matt was hurt.

b) He got freaked out by a Mask killing one of the people he'd handled a case for and decided to spend the day Daredeviling around the city instead of doing his normal job.

And, honestly?

She didn't know which one she'd rather it be, and that scared her.


End file.
